SIT DOWN, HAVE A DRINK, RELAX.

Vale GMH Elizabeth. Holden, You Served Australia Well.

Today’s Guest Author is the redoubtable Puffy the Magic Dragon. Thank you so much for this – it is, unfortunately, an occasion to be commemorated.

On November 29, 1948 Prime Minister Ben Chifley unveiled the first Holden 48-215, which became affectionately known as the “FX”.

On October 20, 2017, the last Holden was built in Australia.

Think about that a moment.

Today, no Prime Minister witnessed the closure of this proud industry. Where was our Coalition Prime Minister? He was on a Victorian radio station this morning declaring how ‘sad’ he is about it. PM Turnbull assures us the workers have found jobs, are studying or are retired. He has little to say about the effects on workers in related businesses, or the emotions and circumstances of the former workers saying goodbye to an era.

Now General Motors Holden is no longer manufacturing cars in Australia. To be accurate nobody is manufacturing cars in Australia anymore. No more of these will be exported.

The Elizabeth factory is the reason the Town of Elizabeth was built. But it is not just Elizabeth that suffers or South Australia. Our nation is the lesser for this loss. These manufacturing enterprises are as much research centres, trade schools, design hubs and robotics developers as they are car-builders. How dumb do you have to be not to support that? Today I watched with many others from all over Australia. I spoke to one family who flew in to Adelaide just to be here today to say goodbye. Anger at the politics behind this disgrace is high.

So many people including those from allied industries and businesses were employed because we made vehicles.

But a short-sighted union-hating Liberal/National Coalition government brought that to an end. We lose an industry, we lose the expertise, the skills and the manufacturing base because of their ideology. None of it made economic sense.

The last Holden rolled off the line today, and the workers were bussed out to a farewell shindig.

The media cameras recorded the event. Maybe Joe Hockey can run it on loop while he smokes his cigars.

Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten hit the nail on the head talking to a group of school children.

“Look over there, kids, at that old Holden. Australia used to be a country that built cars,” Mr Shorten said.

“As of tomorrow, we’re not building cars anymore and the silly old government of the Liberals just couldn’t give a stuff.”

Labor says Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s lack of comment on the closure is proof his government does not care. Amen to that.

Finally, let’s pay a tribute to the workers who made the whole thing work. My late husband, with 20 years of service after his immigration from England being one of them. A member of his union, of course, as a Spares Chaser, (he found parts to fill orders from dealers) he enjoyed his work and made a good life on a worker’s wage.

The questions have been sparked by a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for documents relating to requests for foreign government financing for the controversial multi-billion-dollar mine and rail project.

In response, DFAT asked for more time to respond as the request had “captured several hundred pages of documents”

As a long time lurker and first time poster,Labor shouldn’t let this die. Hammer the lying mongrel bred bastards from this day until the election and keep hammering them after the election. First thing to do when Labor win government, launch Royal Commision’s into every dodgy piece of legislation and every dodgy deal they have made and throw them in jail, and get a Federal ICAC set up and running. Give it real teeth. Probably get a few from your own side of politics but so what? Nail all the bastards to the wall.

Barry, a hearty welcome to you! My apologies for not spotting your comment earlier. Now that you are “approved” you shouldn’t have any more problems posting here.
Fiona

More Cash corruption reveled at Senate estimates – and there it is again, the ‘E’ word.

Michaelia Cash’s Department Let Dumped PaTH Coffee Chain Keep The $1,000 Payment For Interns It
Embattled employment minister Michaelia Cash’s department has admitted a Melbourne coffee franchise that was suspended from her flagship youth internship program wasn’t asked to repay the $1,000 payment it received from the government for taking interns.Exploitedhttps://www.buzzfeed.com/aliceworkman/path-cash?utm_term=.xtxRoQ83n#.rxBqWNnGE

Turnbull could have redeemed himself a bit by going ahead with this idea. Keating gave us the Redfern speech, Rudd gave us the apology, Turnbull could have continued reparations by pushing ahead with implementing the Uluru Statement proposals and ensuring he left one decent thing as his political legacy, but he chose not to do that.

Even worse, he chose the 30th anniversary of Uluru being handed back ti=o its traditional owners as the day to make his announcement.

Welcome. We don’t bite here so please comment more often. No one has ever laughed at me with my silly stuff, so you’re pretty safe.

I’d love for Labor to go for the throat, but I love the way Bill Shorten is handling the whole thing. He is coming across to me as a safe and steady hand on the tiller. It took a while for me to come around to appreciating him, but I now admire him.

My beef is with the msm who(m) are just ignoring him, and sometimes when I have a look at twitter I do catch a few of his door stops, which he is very good at. His polling is neither here nor there, but if more people got to see him and hear him I’m sure that would change.

The Australian Federal Police have launched an investigation into the leaking of information about the raids on the Australian Workers Union headquarters this week.
…
Attorney-General George Brandis has said the government and representatives of the Registered Organisations Commission will no longer answer questions on the matter while the police probe is ongoing.

I thought Canavan was a goner for sure because of an earlier story from the Italian consulate that one can only apply for their own citizenship in person. I find it pretty suss that he was cleared.

But wow. This result is at least probably the next best thing. Roberts can hopefully disappear from politics for good, and Turnbull can have lots of “fun” over the next few weeks sorting out the new cabinet.

Re the Cash saga. What Brandis, with all his chicanery, doesn’t seem to understand is that it’s not the issue of whether Cash retains her position that’s at stake here. It’s the credibility of the Turnbull government. They drag their reputation further and further down the longer they drag this out and quash proper scrutiny into it. They’ve already buggered up the chance they were seeking to hammer unions and Shorten, that’s long gone. Now the spotlight’s turned back onto them they’d be best advised to move Cash on as quickly as possible, because if she stays she’s going to have the same effect on the party as Ley and Bronwyn Bishop did – and Hockey for that matter. A constant reminder that they hit below the belt and bend the rules to suit themselves. They can’t win any elections while the stain remains on the party. Simple as that.

There’s no advantage to be gained in protecting Cash. Their major worry is the possibility – still alive – that Turnbull could be dragged into it. They’d want to close that avenue off by cutting Cash free.

My gut feeling – this by-election will probably result in a range from 52-48 to Joyce to 51-49 to Windsor. It will be close and bitter, but, the government is roughly 4-5% less popular than it was last year, and then there’s the SFF and One Nation running rampant in country NSW that can leak preferences.

I’m also curious to see if Labor will put up a candidate, that may be a big factor as well if it’s a contest between Joyce and Windsor.

I’m thinking Malcolm Roberts will stay on. His citizenship problem has been fixed, he’s now eligible to fill the casual vacancy he himself has caused, so don’t be surprised if Hanson announces he’ll be back ASAP.

Actually that can’t happen. Roberts was invalidly elected in the first place, so it can’t proceed to a casual vacancy. It’s a recount, where no.3 on One Nation’s ballot would be elected. And it’d be up to him if he wants to resign his spot or not for Roberts to return via casual vacancy.

If he doesn’t, I expect Hanson would throw a hissy fit as usual and expel him from the party, but he’d still sit as an Independent senator until his term expires in 2019.

Hanson’s talking now, she says she’s devastated at losing Roberts, but she seems to have no idea about what the recount will mean. She’s talking about not knowing if it’s a total recount or not, whatever that means.

Was there any validity in the ALP claims that every Parliament vote Joyce participated in while he was there is now illegitimate? I assume that’s technically correct but for all practical purposes unenforceable.

The numbers as they are on the floor is essentially 74-74 with the Speaker’s casting vote, so the government still has a “functioning” majority, by the barest amounts.

Yes it’s “convention” for the speaker to be impartial but we all know that Smith will vote along party lines on everything. And even then, Cathy McGowan’s said that she won’t vote against Turnbull in a no-confidence motion.

I suppose it’s better her than Mirabella being there but politically there’s probably no difference.